For the past 40 years or so, a “house cow” has been a valued part of our family. We have had a series of seven cows of different breeds, including two Jerseys, three milking shorthorns, a shorthorn/ Holstein cross, and our current cow: a Jersey/ brown Swiss cross. Thanks to these marvelous animals, our family… Continue reading Dairy processes on a micro-farm in 21st-century Pennsylvania
Yoghurt
Filmjölk – The Swedish Yoghurt
In Sweden, many of us start the day with some yoghurt or fil for breakfast. The yoghurt and fil we eat nowadays is not the traditional homemade soured milk we ate before industrialization, but the products are closely related. Yoghurt as a product has only been produced in dairies in Sweden. In the time before… Continue reading Filmjölk – The Swedish Yoghurt
What, if Anything, is Yoghurt?*
Have you ever thought about yoghurt, really? That there might be more than plain and flavoured? That it might be an iconic food in many places and still made in traditional ways? Two fruit and one plain yoghurt, local production by a farmer in the Morbihan, France, Photo C. Griffin-Kremer We may do well to… Continue reading What, if Anything, is Yoghurt?*
Yogurt in Greece
Editor’s Note: In our continuing series on yoghurt and related food products, we can now set off to Greece with Evangelos Karamanes through the kind help of Irina Stahl of the Ritual Year Working Group (part of the S.I.E.F. https://www.siefhome.org/wg/ry/). Greek yogurt has gained significant renown in international markets over the past few decades as… Continue reading Yogurt in Greece
Turkish Homemade Yoghurt
Editor’s Note: In our continuing series on Yoghurt and similar food products, we are pleased to turn to Turkey and welcome Tuncay Güneş and Vildane Özkan (Alieva) through the good offices of Tatiana Minniyakhmetova of the Ritual Year Working Group. DEFINITION Homemade yoghurt is a dairy product obtained as a result of fermentation of lactic… Continue reading Turkish Homemade Yoghurt
Sour Milk in Latvian National Cuisine
Editor’s Note: In our on-going cooperation with Tatiana Minniyakhmetova of The Ritual Year Working Group (S.I.E.F.), who has connected the AIMA to her colleagues in several countries, here is another installment in our series on yoghurt or yoghurt-like foods, this time from the wealth of traditions in Latvia by Aīda Rancāne. Traditional dairy products in… Continue reading Sour Milk in Latvian National Cuisine
The Bashkir dairy food katyk or oyotkan
The Bashkirs are one of the Turkic-speaking peoples of the Volga-Ural region, located at the junction of Asia and Europe. The majority of Bashkirs live in Bashkortostan (or Bashkiria) and there are diaspora groups outside it. Bashkir is a Turkic language belonging to the Kipchak branch. (See the corresponding Wikipedia articles.) The basis of the… Continue reading The Bashkir dairy food katyk or oyotkan
Traditional Hungarian Yogurt: tarhó
The Finno-Ugric-speaking Hungarian people, who migrated to Europe from the east and were genetically partially Finno-Ugric and mostly Turkic, settled in the territory of present-day Hungary in the 9th–10th centuries. In the 11th–13th centuries, several waves of Cumans (Kuns) and Jász people (nomadic Alanic people from the Pontic steppe) arrived from the east, who settled… Continue reading Traditional Hungarian Yogurt: tarhó
Yoghurt – a traditional food for Bulgarians
The natural connection between human beings, their labour and nature penetrates the worldview of all cultures from different historical eras and it determines the thoughts of a person within a traditional society, including Bulgarians. For example, wheat production and sheep breeding are highly significant for Bulgarians – they measure their fortune not only by the… Continue reading Yoghurt – a traditional food for Bulgarians
Traditional Udmurt Yogurt – Yölpyd
Editor’s Note: This contribution by Tatiana Minniyakhmetova comes to the AIMA thanks to a collaborative effort with the Ritual Year Working Group, a section of the S.I.E.F. (International Society for Ethnology and Folklore) https://www.siefhome.org/wg/ry/ Its members are experts in calendar studies of all hues and, often as a consequence, in food cultures and festive events… Continue reading Traditional Udmurt Yogurt – Yölpyd